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Maggie Stanton, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Animal Behavior

Location

Decary 352
Biddeford Campus

Maggie Stanton is an Assistant Professor of Animal Behavior at the University of New England. Dr. Stanton's research program takes a broad comparative approach to answer questions surrounding the adaptive value of social behavior.  Using long-term behavioral datasets that span decades, Dr. Stanton's research emphasizes the influence of early social experiences on future outcomes in wild populations of long-lived mammals, such as chimpanzees and bottlenose dolphins.  

Credentials

Education

Ph.D.
Georgetown University
2011
B.S. Biology
University of Maryland, College Park
2004
B.S. Psychology
University of Maryland, College Park
2004

Post-Doctoral Training

Primate Behavioral Ecology Laboratory, The George Washington University

Research

Selected publications

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Lonsdorf E.V., Stanton M.A., Wellens K.R., Murray C.M. 2021. Wild chimpanzee offspring exhibit adult-like foraging patterns around the age of weaning. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 1-14.

Subiaul F., Stanton M.A. 2020. Intuitive invention by summative imitation (and emulation) in children and adults. Cognition. 202, 104310.​

Stanton M.A., Lonsdorf E.V., Murray C.M., Pusey A.E. 2020. Consequences of maternal loss before and after weaning in male and female wild chimpanzees. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 74, 22.

Lonsdorf E.V., Stanton M.A., Pusey A.E., Murray C.M. 2019. Sources of variation in weaned age among wild chimpanzees in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 171(3), 419-429.

Lee S.M., Murray C.M., Lonsdorf E.V., Fruth B., Stanton M.A., Nichols J., Hohmann G. 2019. Wild female bonobos and chimpanzees exhibit broadly similar patterns of behavioral maturation but some evidence for divergence. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23935.

Lonsdorf E.V., Stanton M.A., Murray C.M. 2018. Sex differences in sibling-infant interactions in wild chimpanzeesBehavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. 72, 117.

Murray C.M., Stanton M.A., Wellens K.R., Santymire R.M., Heintz M.R., Lonsdorf E.V. 2018. Maternal effects on offspring stress physiology in wild chimpanzeesAmerican Journal of Primatology. 80, e22525.
 
Lonsdorf E.V., Travis D.A., Gillespie T.G., Wolf T., Murray C.M., Wilson M.L., Kamenya S., Mjungu D., Bakuza J., Raphael J., Lipende I., Collins D.A., Gilby I.C., Stanton M.A., Terio K.A., Hahn B.H., Pusey A.E., Goodall J. 2018. Social and demographic patterns of observable clinical signs of ill health in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) at Gombe National Park, Tanzania. American Journal of Primatology. 80, e22562.
 
McGrath K., El-Zaatari S., Guatelli-Steinberg D., Stanton M.A., Reid D.J., Stoinski T.S., Cranfield M.R., Mudakikwa A., McFarlin S.C. 2018. Quantifying linear enamel hypoplasia in Virunga mountain gorillas and other great apes. American Journal of Physical Anthropology. 166, 337-352.

Stanton M.A., Lonsdorf E.V., Pusey A.E., Murray C.M. 2017. Do juveniles help or hinder? Influence of juvenile offspring on maternal behavior and reproductive outcomes in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)Journal of Human Evolution. 111, 152-16.

Miller J.A., Stanton M.A., Lonsdorf E.V., Wellens K.R., Markham A.C., Murray C.M. 2017. Limited evidence for third-party affiliation during development in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii). Royal Society Open Science. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.170500.

Krzyszczyk E., Patterson E.M., Stanton M.A., Mann J. 2017. The transition to independence: Sex differences in the social and behavioral development of wild bottlenose dolphins. Animal Behaviour. 129, 43-59.

Murray C.M., Stanton M.A., Lonsdorf E.V., Wroblewski E.E., Pusey A.E. 2016. Chimpanzee fathers bias their behavior towards their offspring. Royal Society Open Science. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.160441.

O’Malley, R., Stanton M.A., Gilby I., Lonsdorf E.V., Pusey A.E., Markham A.C., Murray C.M. 2016. Patterns of faunivory across reproductive states and rank in wild female chimpanzees. Journal of Human Evolution. 90, 16-28.

Stanton M.A., Heintz M.R., Lonsdorf E.V., Santymire R.M., Lipende I., Murray C.M. 2015. Maternal behavior and physiological stress levels in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii)International Journal of Primatology. 36, 473-488.

Karniski C., Patterson E.M., Krzyszczyk E., Foroughirad V., Stanton M.A., Mann J. 2014. A comparison of survey and focal follow methods for estimating individual activity budgets of cetaceans. Marine Mammal Science. 31, 839-852.

Stanton M.A., Lonsdorf E.V., Pusey A.E., Goodall, J., Murray C.M. 2014. Maternal behavior by birth order in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): Increased investment by first-time mothersCurrent Anthropology, 55, 483-489.

Murray, C. M., Lonsdorf, E. V., Stanton, M.A., Wellens, K. R., Miller, J. A., Goodall, J., & Pusey, A. E. 2014. Early social exposure in wild chimpanzees: Mothers with sons are more gregarious than mothers with daughters.  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(51), 18189-18194.

Lonsdorf E.V., Anderson K.A., Stanton M.A., Shender M.A., Heintz M.R., Goodall J., Murray C.M. 2014. Boys will be boys: Sex differences in wild infant chimpanzee social interactions. Animal Behavior, 88, 79-83.

Stanton M.A., Mann J. 2012. Early social networks predict survival in wild bottlenose dolphinsPLoS ONE, 7, e47508. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0047508.

Mann J., Stanton M.A., Patterson E.M., Bienenstock E.J., Singh L.O. 2012. Social Networks Reveal Culture in Tool Using Dolphins. Nature Communications, 3, 980.

Hirsch B.T., Stanton M.A., Maldonado J.E. 2012. Kinship shapes affiliative social networks but not aggression in ring-tailed coatis. PLoS ONE, 7, e37301.

Stanton M.A., Gibson Q.A., Mann J. 2011. When mum’s away: a study of mother and calf ego networks during separations in wild bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.)Animal Behaviour, 83, 405-412.

BOOK CHAPTERS

Mann J., Stanton M.A., Murray, C.M. 2020. Dolphins and Chimpanzees: A case for convergence? In Chimpanzees in Context, ed. Hopper L. & Ross S. University of Chicago Press.

Stanton M.A. & Mann J. 2014. Social network analysis: Applications to primate and cetacean societies. In Primates and cetaceans: Field research and conservation of complex mammalian societies, ed. Yamagiwa J. & Karczmarski L. Springer.

Stanton M.A. & Mann J. 2014. Shark Bay bottlenose dolphins: A case study for defining and measuring sociality. In Primates and cetaceans: Field research and conservation of complex mammalian societies, ed. Yamagiwa J. & Karczmarski L. Springer.

 

Research interests

I am broadly interested in the adaptive value of social behavior, with an emphasis on the influence of early social experiences on individual outcomes in wild populations. I take a broad comparative approach and through collaborations with the Gombe Chimpanzee Project and the Shark Bay Dolphin Project I primarily conduct research in two long-lived mammalian species: chimpanzees and bottlenose dolphins. With long-term datasets that now span multiple generations organized into online relational databases, we can make use of data mining and statistical techniques to investigate behavior across the long lifespan of individuals and relate early experience to adult outcomes in both systems.